Romney — the new Tom Dewey?

A Republican activist from New York, Helen Porter Simpson, once joked about her party’s long ago presidential nominee: “You have to know Tom Dewey really well to dislike him.”

Dewey was upset by Harry Truman after being identified in Life magazine as “our next president,” and after an election evening Chicago Tribune headline told the world: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

Romney

Are Americans growing to dislike Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney as they get to know him? The polls are ominous, lately one from this Washington.

The Elway Poll, released this week, found President Obama with an eight-point 50-42 percent lead in this state over an unnamed “generic” Republican challenger.

When pitted against Romney, however, the President’s lead grows to 11 points at 49-38 percent. Romney gets four percent less than a hypothetical, nameless and unknown candidate.

Other polls are producing similar results. A Public Policy Polling survey in Michigan gives Obama a 54-38 percent lead over the Republican favorite. Rick Santorum is suddenly running even or slightly ahead among GOP voters in the state where Romney grew up.

Romney was even or even a point or two ahead of Obama, in December and January national polls, but now trails by a margin of five to nine points.

What’s happened? The economy is on the upswing. Beyond that, however, Romney has stuck his foot in his mouth with a succession of remarks (e.g. Corporations are people, my friend” and “I’m unemployed”) and the not-too-humanizing tale of a family dog strapped in a cage on the roof of the family station wagon.

Candidates can recover from a bad impression. “Why people don’t trust Clinton” was the theme of a Time magazine cover story run in the spring of 1992. Image makers set to work on “The Man from Hope” theme and Clinton became America’s 42nd president that November.